What is "Prayer"?

[Jason]

I consider this to be a matter of semantics since many of us combine elements of praise, asking and "listening" when we kneel/stand/prostrate before God. Jesus taught us how to pray but what we ordinarily call "praying" is a combination of communal acts with God. Is there profit in exacting biblical language? Perhaps there is. Not for me - at least not here.

[kaufmannphillips]

Umm - ok, but the question isn't about the english necessarily, but what the bible means by the terms that we typically call prayer.

It can be worthwhile to attempt to discern what was meant when the bible said x, y, and z. But the bible is not an English dictionary, and English is the language that most persons here will employ most frequently in their thought and ministry. What the bible says may be useful for informing one's thoughts about "prayer," but it needn't define "prayer" for a present-day English-speaker. And the average ministrant will need to be discipled in "prayer," not in proseuche or deesis, etc.

So careful attention to the diction of a verse in its original language is great for an exegetical endeavor. One should attempt to explain a verse fairly and rightly. But one need not then turn and use that verse to circumscribe the present-day concept of "prayer."

[darinhouston]

But one need not then turn and use that verse to circumscribe the present-day concept of "prayer."

But if the present-day concept of prayer is flawed, I want to return to what Christ intended for us to in prayer.

[kaufmannphillips]

kaufmannphillips wrote:
But one need not then turn and use that verse to circumscribe the present-day concept of "prayer."

darinhouston wrote:
But if the present-day concept of prayer is flawed, I want to return to what Christ intended for us to in prayer.

What sort of thing do you have in mind here?